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Vacation season is upon us! This of course means day trips, house projects, sleeping in late, staying up late, and a variety of other activities designed to get our minds off of work and everyday life. Unfortunately for some it also means taking a break from our relationship with God. Sometimes when on vacation we can be tempting to get lax when it comes spiritual disciplines such as prayer and Bible reading.

But, rather than taking a break from God, your summer vacation is an excellent opportunity to connect with Him in brand new ways. Here are 7 things to try this vacation:

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In an effort to make things a little more exciting here and to share what’s on mind at the moment without writing a full post, I’ve added a new little feature that you’ll find over on the right called "On My Mind". This will be a place we’re I’ll share little nuggets, thoughts, prayers and prayer requests, and even personal updates that may be of interest (such as "I’m going to Starbucks, anyone want to join me?"). To do this, I’m utilizing a service called Twitter . This allows for some interaction and not just me talking and you listening. You can check me out at twitter.com/paulbowman where you can learn how to connect with your cell phone.

We’ll see how it works out!

Tags: twitter

Perhaps you’ve seen the news about an Amazon tribe that is believed to have never had contact with the outside world. If not, click here to read the story

This amazing discovery got me thinking about all of the people that are in this world that have not only never been touched by the outside, but have also never been told the Gospel story of God’s love. According to the Joshua Project there are currently 2.68 billion unreached (people who haven’t been told the Gospel) people in the world!

Those that have never heard of God’s redeeming love and grace are all around us. They live in remote villages as well as across the street.

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Tags: amazon tribe, evangelism, unreached

And God said …

Read Genesis 1 and you’ll see that the creation of the world came about as a result of God’s Voice. God brought about life in the beginning through His Voice. All God had to do was speak and things like light, water, sky, and land came into being. The natural world that we live in today is a result of God’s Voice.

A few Sundays ago, Pastor Coon spoke about the Voice of God when it comes to revival (listen here ). If we want to be revived we need the Voice of God to speak in our lives.
2 Timothy 3:16 says that Scripture is "God breathed" - it comes from His mouth. And Jesus responded to Satan in Matthew 4:4 by saying that "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God ." The Bible is often called God’s Word, and for good reason! Every word, phrase, sentence, and story comes from the mouth of God. In the beginning, God spoke and created life. He still speaks through His Word, the Scriptures, and it still creates life (2 Corinthians 5:17).

If we want to experience life and revival and renewal then we need the Voice of God, we need His Word! I like what George Mueller says, "The vigor of our spiritual life is in direct proportion to the place we hold the Bible in our thoughts." If you want to experience the life God has, pick up a Bible and let Him speak!

As a part of our latest discussion series at "Quest" (the Sunday night discipleship service at Calvary), we are spending this week reading through the Book of Matthew together. Go check out the highlights and interact at quest.calvarydover.org

The current sermon series at Calvary Assembly of God is called “Revive Me Again” and is focused on revival. You can listen to it here.

Revival is something that we all need. There is no doubt about that! I wonder though if sometimes Christians think of revival as something that will magically happen to us; perhaps if we ask God enough times or sing loud enough maybe he’ll decide to hear us.  I wonder if sometimes we put the full responsibility of revival on God and think all we have to do is sit back and wait for God to do it.

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I would like to begin a series of posts/discussions on the “spiritual disciplines” for the purpose of learning together how we as Christians do as 1 Peter 3:18 says “grow in grace”.

Over the next months I’d like to discuss the various practices and exercises that we can “do” that help us in the process of transformation in Christ-likeness. These disciplines include things such as prayer, fasting, Scripture reading/meditation/memorization, solitude, celebration, service, and more. They range from personal exercises to things that we do together.

But, first what are spiritual disciplines?

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Our Spring Alpha Course begins in one week !

Do you know someone who is a new Christian? Or perhaps, someone who is not a Christian but is curious and would like to "investigate" in a friendly, casual setting? If you know someone like that, or if that describes YOU, then we invite you to join us. Go to www.faith-journey.com/alpha for more info and to sign up today!

As you know, we just celebrated Easter - the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus is alive!

Jesus’ resurrection has strong implications for those that believe in Him:

Romans 6:5-14

"If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin- because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace."

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